featured articles

On this, the tenth anniversary of Joe Strummer's untimely passing, members of his celebrated Mescaleros band reflect on their time with the man, his inspiration during the latter years and their shared experiences on being "Strummered".

articles

Having been drumming with Dan since 2003 – not to mention lengthy stints with Sting, John Mayer, Wayne Krandz, Toto and James Taylor to name but a few – it’s a gig he says he’s now comfortable with. But when …

Mark Youll interviewed drummer Dylan Howe about his new album Subterrenean – New Designs on Bowie’s Berlin .The recording features Howe’s quintet with Brandon Allen and Julian Siegel on tenor saxophones, Mark Hodgson on double bass and Ross Stanley on piano and synths.

gig reviews

As much as a milestone moment that gig was forty-five years ago, you fast got the impression from all the welcoming whistles and cheer that, like Holland himself, tonight’s crowd was more concerned with the now, this gig, this band …

Boarding the bandstand to a hail of whistles and stand-up applause, Marsalis waited for hush to discuss the legacy of the label, before leading a crisp, triple trumpet fanfare across drummer Ali Jackson’s soft rumble of toms, opening Jackie McLean’s …

From the get-go the show swung hard throughout, but the first set was noteworthy in that it rolled out most of Bird’s biggies first. ‘Ornithology’ was tailed by the ever-seductive sax melody to ‘A Night in Tunisia’ which, over a …

q & a interviews

Speaking exclusively about the release of the forthcoming album by his new band Sons of Kemet, leading British saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings also lets slip his motivation for putting together this intense and edgy outfit, and how they will play alongside the BBC concert orchestra in a very special Radio 3-commissioned performance at this year’s London Jazz Festival.

Moments before their one-off show in London to promote their lastest album Think Positive, Chief Realies Chris and Tony Griffiths spoke to Mark Youll about the twenty-five year history of the group, and their influence on the countless bands that site them as the original makers and shakers of what later became Britpop.

album reviews

This recently recovered set, drawn from three festival shows in France, Berlin and Stockholm the previous summer, is a raw, must-hear document of Davis with a ‘working’ band that lasted just a matter of months, criminally never to make their …

Without giving too much away, without mentioning the fact it’s taken a mere three months for the Troubadours to travel from underground – a run of pale but credible acoustic slots featuring just Connett and Rogers at first (the first …

Besides the obvious here: stronger songs, a more direct sound, maybe a bigger production budget and therefore more free channels to play with in the studio, King of Spain fully recognise that indie rock music, in its proper guise (al …

about

A curious meld of artist interviews, blogs, critiques, features, album
and gig reviews. Words of Noise is a collection, or maybe a diverse gathering,
of rock writing by freelance journalist and all-round music fantasist Mark Youll.